Advancements in communication technologies have permitted the development, deployment, and regular usage of new types of communication services. For many, access to communicate using these communication services is an integral part of their everyday life, both for business communications and for personal communications.
For instance, communications are regularly carried out through use of processor-based devices, such as computer stations that are connectable to a communication network. Conventional, personal computers, are connectable to private networks and public networks, e.g., the internet. Once connected, communication data sourced at the computer station is able to be communicated elsewhere, such as to another, similarly connected computer station. Connection to the communication network is variously made by made of a wireline connection or a wireless connection. For instance, a wireless connection by way of any radio air interface defined in any of various cellular communication systems, WiFi-based communications, IEEE 802.11-based communications, etc.
Text messages, such as e-mail messages, are regularly communicated between computer, or other communication, stations by way of a communication network. An e-mail service is sometimes referred to as a store-and-forward service as the originator of the message and the recipient of the message need not concurrently be available for sending and receiving of the created message to be carried out. Rather, the message, once created, is routed to a mail-service server, or other device, for delivery to the recipient when the recipient is available to receive the message. The mail server, or like device, stores the message until the recipient is available, and, when available, the message is forwarded on to the recipient.
Generally, the message includes an identification of the originator of the message, an identification of the intended recipient of the message, a message body including a subject line, and, sometimes, attachments.
Typically, charges do not accrue to a sender or recipient of a message. Rather, the sending and receiving of the messages are generally included in a service subscription or periodic access charged for a network connection.
The generally free nature of sending of messages sometimes results in abuse of such communication services. As almost anyone that uses a mail service to send or to receive messages is aware, many messages are sent by unknown senders, often times soliciting sales of products or services that are unwanted by the recipient and, often times, are of unsavory natures. These messages are sometimes referred to as being spam messages. And, some messages try to induce the recipient to purchase goods that shall never be shipped or to provide financial information that permits the recipient to be defrauded. All of these messages shall be referred to herein, at times, as fraudulent messages. Many times, these fraudulent messages originate from locations far distant from the jurisdictional area in which the recipient is located.
Unfortunately, large numbers of spam messages are communicated. Some estimate that the number of spam messages exceed, by a significant amount, the numbers of legitimate messages that are communicated by way of public networks. As many know, the number of spam messages received at a recipient's in-box upon opening the mail client of the recipient or application regularly includes such spam, or other fraudulent, messages. To reduce the number of fraudulent messages directed to a recipient's in-box of the recipient's mail client or application, filters have been developed to filter such messages. When a filter detects a fraudulent message, the message is either deleted or routed to a folder other than the in-box of the recipient. That is to say, operation of the filter filters the fraudulent message so that the in-box folder of the recipient is not cluttered with the unwanted messages.
Spam filters work in various manners to distinguish between legitimate messages and fraudulent, i.e., spam, messages. Keyword or character string recognition is sometimes utilized. Concept identification, user-defined, rule-based filtering, analysis of the identity of the originator, statistical analysis of message content, and comparison with filter-data bases of similar messages, are all sometimes utilized.
In spite of best efforts, however, the existing filters often times either filter legitimate messages or fail to filter fraudulent messages. Excessive filtering and inadequate filtering of received messages both are problematical.
If an improved manner could be provided by which better to filter received messages, problems associated with excessive filtering and inadequate filtering would be lessened.
It is in light of this background information related to communication of messages that the significant improvements of the present invention have evolved.